Sunday, May 10

The Race Is Over #6 & #7

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I sense by the traffic to this site that this Race Against Racism series may have imposed itself beyond your tolerance. Okay, so let me end it with a fireworks display.. K? Out of the six images that I haven't yet posted these two were always intended to be the final act. The blazing rockets. I love each of them. But then, I'm a sentimental mush-ball when it comes to image making. I just can't seem to reach in and pull out the dark stuff. Maybe there isn't any darkstuff? Hmmmm... gotta think on that since darkstuff seems to be what critics want artists to do, right?

Okay, I will think on how to make gritty statements about the human condition's inevitable overheating of the earth, inhumanity toward one another, tendencies toward senseless savageries, and of course its trigger for wars and ancient obsessions for revenge. Sigh...



But before I go off to do dat... Howzabout we ponder these last two images- the end of this posted series - together. Yeah, they're sweet enough to make your teeth fall out... so clamp them tightly together... hopefully in a smile? K?

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Tech stuff? As before the photos came first through my mighty Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens onto the 40D's processor. I used Topaz, and the AlienSkin Bokeh + SnapArt filters to tease out the thematic style that held this series together. If you'll click on the word IMAGEFICTION in the masthead way up above, you should be able to scroll down and look at others in this series along with the virgin photographs that I pulled directly from my FlashCards. Questions about technical details for this series? Leave them in the comments, or like most people, drop me an email to the address you'll find in the column there on the upper right. Hope you've enjoyed this series as much as I have making it.

6 comments:

Stephen Issell said...

As you know Ted, You have gathered the kindling and struck the match with your enthusiasm and masterly control over this plugin.
I have now become a fan of this technique and formed a sort of love affair with it.

Thank you for all your work that you have done with these posters and the message that is so important.

Stephen

Bill Birtch said...

Loved the series and your interpretations of the images. I also think that the Race Against Racism is a brilliantly conceived idea and applaud everyone who participated. A real feel good story. Thanks for putting it out there.

Ted said...

(Stephen) Yep, I've seen your ideas filtered through SnapArt Stephen and I'm very encouraged that my stuff sufficiently intrigued you to explore its possibilities. I'm thinking that this, together with Topaz and Bokeh are to Post Processing as LensBabies are to PreProcessing, but that they put even more power into the artists hands than LensBabies and have the additional benefit of not degrading the original image.

(Bill) Yeah, this was the eleventh year of Lancaster's Race Against Racism and it attracted professional runners from as far away as Morocco and Ethiopia as well as thousands from all around this part of Pa. As for the image enhancement... you will have fun by trying the thirty day trial version of both Bokeh and SnapArt... I suspect your snarky vision would find a lot of nourishment with these devices.

Debra Trean said...

A fabulous series and powerful to say the least. I wonder why in this age in time people can not just be people regardless of all the odd titles. I have seen my own town change in the ten years I have been here but often feel like I am in a strange land living near people I fail to understand !

Ted said...

(PnF) And yet.... for all of our difficulty with the tensions that exist between the various communities in our country... we seem more able to deal with them and deal with them quickly than anywhere else on earth.

In spite of our great civil war, and struggles with racism there appear to be few of the centuries old blood feuds which characterize Europe, Asia, the Mid-East and Africa that have plunged the world into wars. Which have resulted in systematic recurring genocidal horrors.

Our people do not march annually to celebrate or mourn some real or alleged historic atrocity, rather they march for... and seem to eventually achieve.... economic and social mobility through a permissive political system.

Does it react quickly enough? Of course not. Are there frequently humiliating embarrassments along the way... uh-huh, even painful ones. And yet... yet... there probably is a reason why we still attract far more to our shores than we send off.

It's corny I guess, but "Land Of Opportunity" still is a phrase that resonates, even among many who daily confront continuing obstacles... and who work with most of us... to kick them the hell down.

John Roberts said...

I'm a little late coming in on this series, but I've enjoyed catching up! The expressions you captured on each face made me wonder what each person was thinking. What were their experiences with racism? What were their hopes for the future? Obviously, the event was much more than just a race, and you captured that fact with your images